Teamwork: How Playing as a Team Makes You a Winner

Teamwork in front-yard football

Teamwork. I watched it happen in my front yard.

“It sure was fun having you on my team,” I told my daughter as we headed back to the house. We had just finished a Sunday afternoon football game in the front yard.

“Yes, Mama,” my five-year-old replied. “It was good I was on your team, because if I wasn’t, a couple of times you would have been dead meat.”

I smiled at  her response. She knew she was a valuable member of our team. We’d been playing for several weeks and the teams were always the same. The three older boys (ages 7-10) against the parents and little sister.

Our team functioned as a body, supporting each other. I was not a fast runner and little miss couldn’t run that fast, either. The boys on the other team could outrun both of us. They also understood the game better than I did. I knew that it didn’t have to make sense to me if I would follow instructions. I also knew that I didn’t even have to agree as long as I followed the lead of my captain. I just listened to what Dave told me to do when the “Hike” was shouted, and then blindly obeyed.

Individual or a teamwork?

The other team functioned as three individuals. We usually won. They lost their strength when they lost their  unity and cohesiveness. Each of them had his own idea of how to run the ball, and rather than give in to each other, they spent a fair amount of time arguing among themselves. We were a little like the tortoise and the hare. We, the tortoise team kept plodding along following our main player and doing what  he told us to do. The other team, the team of hares, could have outrun us any day, but they got bogged down with their lack of cohesiveness.

Whether we’re working on a team as a family, a married couple, parents, a business, or a church, we’ll never get anywhere if we don’t function as a team. Being a team is more than just playing on the same field. It’s being so interwoven that when one part hurts, everyone hurts. When one part excels, the other parts applaud. It’s having everyone waiting at the finish line to welcome the last one in. Completing the course is what makes the team a winner.

Life is about working as a team

How about it? What teams are you a part of and how do you play on that team?

Does it have to be your way or the highway, or can you give in and concede for the benefit of the team?

When a team member fails, are you there to pick him up, or do you keep knocking him back down when he attempts to get up?

When a member wins or excels, are you there applauding, or do you stifle the team by your lack of applause?

I’ve been on both kinds of teams – and unfortunately, there are times I’ve been both types of team players.

We need each other. We need our team members.

We also need to follow the best instruction Book for teams and teamwork. We don’t  have to completely understand it; we don’t need to agree; it doesn’t even have to make sense. All we need to do is respond correctly when the “Hike!” is called.

Whether it’s in our marriage, our church, our neighbors or our co-workers, we will all be winners if we play as a team. No matter on what type of team we play, our goal should be to win as a team.

Because nobody – absolutely nobody – ought to be dead meat.